Air conditioner



H. H. HAYS AIR CONDITIONER July 19, 1960 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Sept.29, 1958 FIG.3.

Inventor am! a was & Attprnoy H. H. HAYS AIR CONDITIONER July 19, 1960 2Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Sept. 29, 1958 Inventor HARRY- HOVELL RAYS AttorneyUnited States Patent AIR CONDITIONER Harry Howell Hays, 2530 San DiegoSt., El Paso, Tex. Filed Sept. 29, 1958, Ser. No. 763,944 9 Claims. (Cl.183-44) My invention relates to air control devices for household use,and this control applies not only to the circulation of the air, butalso to the cooling and/or humidifying thereof.

Householders recognize the benefits of air conditioning but for variousreasons many do not utilize it, and they depend on ventilation of thehouse through open windows.

As outer atmospheric conditions are constantly changing both as totemperature and humidity, it. is usually found that ordinary windowventilation is not very satisfactory and is often accompanied byexcessive draughts.

Health centres advocate the use of fresh air in living and sleepingquarters, and they further advise on maintaining the humidity of the airat desirable levels. Fr quen'tly householders expose pans of wateradjacent open windows in the hope that the air will take up insuspension sufiicient water to temper the air in the household. This isat best a very inefficient manner of augmenting the humidity of dryatmospheric air or of substantially lowering the temperature thereof byevaporation, and it is also unsightly in a home, so that the ultimateresult is far from satisfactory.

I have made a careful study of the problem of air conditioning in housesso as to cool the air as by evaporation or to provide the propercombination of air with the required humidity to give satisfactoryresults in every day use.

In seeking a solution to this problem there are several fundamentals tobe considered, namely the cost of installing and maintenance of an airconditioning device, the ready adjustment of the device to suit changesin atmospheric conditions andthe accessibility of the device in a mannerwhich provides for routine inspection and/or cleaning.

I have solved this problem by the construction of an air conditioningand humidifying apparatus which is readily adaptable for use in privatehomes, and is also highly efficient and easy to control, and further theapparatus is not costly to either -'nstall or to maintain.

One of the objects of my invention is to construct an air control devicewhich can be efiiciently operated at low cost to rectify air conditionswhich become either too warm, too dry or too moist within a household.

Another object of my invention is to regulate the supply of moisture tothe air control device, thereby providing suitable atmosphericconditions within the precincts of the household.

A further object of my invention is to efficiently scrub the air onpassage through the air conditioning device, so as to remove dust,pollen and/or other solid particles in suspension in the air, and alsoexcess globules of moisture in suspension in the air, so delivering tothe household, air in a condition best calculated to serve the purposerequired of it. 1

Still another object of my invention is to provide a rotatable fluiddistributor to which moisture may be fed Patented July l9, 1960 ice at arequired rate by means of a. water carrying ring mounted on thedistributor.

A further object still of my invention is as construct an air controldevice which may be readily and advantageously positioned outside abuilding, freely accessible to atmospheric air, and with'a manuallyoperated control extending from the device to the interior of thebuilding, and operable therefrom.

Another object still of my invention is to provide an automatic selfadjusting water level control for the device, thereby assuring a uniformdelivery of water to the air being circulated through my air controldevice.

Still a further object of my invention is to construct the airconditioning device with stacked screening and scrubbing members in amanner which permits of such members being removed for cleaning and/orreplacement in a minimum of time and with a minimum of labour.

Another object of my invention is to provide an air I conditioningdevice which may be operated under dry conditions or under moistconditions, to ensure that the degree of humidity in the conditioned airdelivered to the household will be such as to provide a comfortable andhealthful atmosphere in the household.

Other objects will be made clear as the specification develops.

So that the nature of my invention will be clearly understood I haveillustrated an embodiment of the same which -I shall describe in detail,but I wish it to be understood that I do not limit my invention to thisspecific structure or description, but reserve the right to modify thesame within the scope of my appended claims.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is an end elevation, partly sectional, of my air control deviceshowing the location of the rotatable fan and water distributor and thesuperposed screening and scrubbing mechanism;

Figure 2 is a transverse section of my air control device taken on theline 2-2 of Figure 1, and looking in the direction of the arrows;

Figure 2A is a side elevation detail with part of the fan drive pulleybroken away to show the skeleton Spider bearing support and air inletarrangement;

Figure 3 is a plan view of the lower portion of the housing or casing ofmy air control device showing the location of the water trough in thelower part of the housing or casing, the view being taken on the line3-3 of Figure 2 and looking in the'direction of the arrows;

Figure 4 is a side elevation of the housing or casing of my air controldevice showing the manually operable control rod for turning the airconditioner on or off, -includ-ing the emptying of the water trough; and

Figure 5 is a side elevation of the housing or casing of my airconditioner showing an alternative mechanism for controlling theoperation of the device together with the suspension and feeding of thewater trough, by manipulation of a manually operated rod which may beset to permit of selectable dry or wet running of my air conditioner 'asmay be found necessary or desirable.

Like characters of reference refer to like parts in the several figuresof the drawings. Referring to the drawings, A represents my airconditioning device comprising a housing or casing 10 which is formedlike a hollow parallelopiped provided in its lowerwall with an elongatedopening 11, and from the lower lateral marginal edges Z-shaped'brackets'12 depend, and these brackets are of substantial depth and inparallelism throughout their lengths.

Below the opening 11 a rectangular trough 13 is positioned, and thistrough is formed on its upper open end with outwardly extending lateralflanges which co-act with the Z-shaped brackets 12. The rear end of thetrough 13 is hinged at 9, but the forward end of the trough is floatingwithin the limits of the depth of the web of the Z-shaped brackets. Theforward end of the trough is supported by a helical tension spring 15,the lower end 16 of which is attached to the trough d3 while the upperend is attached to an anglebracket 17 on an adjacent wall of the housingor casing By reference to Figure 3 of the drawings it will be seen thatthe opening 11 extends across a major portion of tllre width of thelower wall of the housing or casing 0.

A shaft 18 is rotatably mounted in bearings 7 in the lateral walls ofthe housing 10, each bearing being carried or supported by a skeletonspider formed in the wall of the housing to provide a solid mounting forthe bearing yet affording a number of surrounding openings 10*- so thatair may enter the housing through these spider openings. The shaft 18carries preferably midway of its length a cylindrical fan anddistributor 19, comprising a plurality of flat, elongated radiallydisposed blades 19 extending substantially the full width of theinterior of the casing 10 and secured at opposite ends to disks 19 Arigid feed ring 20 of greater diameter than the fan encircles thiscylindrical fan and distributor, and the lower portion of the ringprojects through the elongated opening 11 in the bottom of the housingand into the trough 13. The shaft 18 when rotated thus causes liquid tobe raised by ring 20, and delivered to blades 19a which blades act as aunitary member to produce a flow of air and to distribute uniformly theliquid delivered to them.

The ends of the shaft 18 project beyond the lateral walls of the housing10, and on one of the ends a belt pulley 21 is firmly secured, andaligned with this belt pulley is a second belt pulley 22 mounted on thedrive shaft 23 of an electric motor B which may be of conventional orvariable speed type. And endless belt 24 operatively connects the twopulleys 21 and 22 so that on energizing the motor B, rotary motion istransmitted to the shaft 18 and to the distributor and fan 19 mountedthereon.

On the inner faces of the lateral walls of the housing 18 a plurality ofangle brackets 25 are mounted, and the upper faces of these brackets liein the same horizontal plane and are designed to operatively support ap1ural- I ity of stacked screening and scrubbing members 26.

Each of the screening and scrubbing members 26 may be constructed of aporous material or may be metallic, plastic or of other suitablematerials, each screen being provided with a plurality of smallperforations or interstices which extend over the entire surface of thescreen and scrubbing members. Each screen and scrubbing member 26 isformed with a plurality of V-shaped grooves which are arranged inparallel relation to each other and extend completely across the widthand below the lower face of the screen.

It will be noted by reference to Figure 2 that the first and thirdscreens or scrubbing members 26 are arranged with their V-shaped grooves27 extending longitudinally of the housing 10, whereas the second andfourth screens or scrubbing members 26 of the stack are arranged withthe V-shaped grooves 27 extending transversely across the interior ofthe housing 10.

The stack of screen and scrubbing members 26 is 10 cated above thecylindrical fan and distributor 19, and it will be seen that a pluralityof pockets are formed between adjacent superposed screens or scrubbingmembers.

The upper end of the housing 10 is desirably removable to afford accessto the screens 26, and this upper end is formed with a take off conduitC, through which conditioned air is discharged from the air control andconditioning device A.

A water inlet pipe 28 running adjacent to one of the walls of thehousing 10 has its free end 29 feeding into the trough 13, andintermediate of the length of this pipe a water discharge valve 30 ofconventional form is located.

Co-acting with the valve 30 is an actuating arm 31 which is pivotedintermediate its length to the housing 10 by the pin 32, and one end ofthis arm is connected to the lower end of the tension spring 33, theupper end of which is attached to the housing 10.

The end 34 of the arm 31 remoted from the spring 33 is bent in arcuateform to overhang the trough 13 which is provided with a transverse bar35 designed to co-act with the end 34 of the arm to open the valve 30and so permit of water being fed into the trough 13. The bottom or lowerwall of the trough 13 is formed with a valve seat 36 with which theneedle valve 37 carried by the hinged leaf spring arm 38 coacts.

In Figure 4 the spring-urged arm 38 is seen in open position with thefree end thereof projecting beyond the trough 13 and engaged by thelower end of a rod 39 which passes through and slidably engages theguides 40 and 41 carried by the housing 10. Between the guides 40 and41, the rod 39 is provided with a fixed washer 42 located toward thelower end and a slidable collar 43 near its upper end.

A compression spring 44 encircles the rod 39 and is located between thefixed washer 42 and slidable collar 43, and a second compression spring45 encircles the rod 39 and is located between the fixed washer 42 andthe guide 40. A manually operable rod or suitable flexible member 46 isformed with an arm 47 on its upper end which is secured to the lowerface of the slidable collar 43 resting on the upper end of thecompression spring 44.

The upper side of the arm 47, connected to the end of the manuallyoperable rod 46, carries a suitably insulated electric contact 48 whichco-acts with an electric contact 49 to control the electric circuitserving the motor B, so that on the movement of the rod 46 upwardlyunder the action of springs 44 and 45 the contacts 48 and 49 engage andso close the electric circuit to the motor B and thus actuate the fanand distributor 19. The electric circuit may be wired into ortemporarily connected by a conventional plug and socket with a source ofelectrical energy (not shown).

The manually operated rod 46 is provided with a suitable latch 50 toretain the rod in any one of several positions, but when the rod 46 isdisengaged from the latch 50, then the springs 44 and 45 automaticallymove the rod 46 into the position described above in which the contacts48 and 49 are closed completing the motor circuit, and simultaneouslywith this closing of these con t acts, the vertical movement of the rod39 has separated from the spring-urged arm 38 first allowing the needle37 to close on the valve seat 36 and also permitting the trough 13 torise under action of its coil spring 15 so as to actuate the valve arm31 against the action of its closing spring 33 so that the trough isfilled by the water pipe 28.

When the air conditioning device A is in use, water is fed through thepipe 28 and the valve 39 and delivered to the trough 13 and as the waterreaches a predetermined and desired level in the trough 13, then thetension spring 15 supporting the trough permits the front end of thetrough to move downwardly while the rear end of the trough which ishinged at 9 remains in normal position. During this downward movement ofthe front end of the trough, the transverse bar 35 becomes disengagedfrom the end 34 of the arcuate arm 31, so permitting the valve 30 toclose.

Simultaneously the variable speed motor B is in motion, and the fan anddistributor 19 is rotated. During this rotation of the fan anddistributor rotary motion is also transmitted to .the ring 20, and asthe lower end of this ring is immersed in the water in the trough 13,then a film of water is carried upwardly by the ring and discharged onvthe distributor.

The air entering through the spider openings in the walls of the housing10- is circulated by the fan and distributor 19, and on leaving theperiphery of the distributor it is in contact with the water on thedistributor, so that the airnow carries globules of water in suspension.This moisture laden air is projected upwardly within the housing 10whence the stream of moist air impinges on the lowermost of the screenand scrubbing members 26.

The moisture laden air passes through the orifices in the V-shapedgrooves, and the larger globules of water are arrested and flow alongthe V-shaped grooves toward the edges of the screen. This separation ofsuspended water from the stream of air is repeated as the air passesthrough each successive screen or scrubbing member 26, and any waterseparated during this passage of the air through the screen flows alongthe respective V-shaped grooves towards the walls of the housing 10.

A film or curtain of water consequently flows downwardly from theperipheral edges of the screens 26 during the upward movement of the airthrough the orifices in the screens and scrubbing members, so that freemoisture laden air cannot escape and rise upwardly around the peripheraledges of the screen and scrubbing members 26, but must pass through theperforations in these screens and scrubbing members.

During this passage of the air through the screens and scrubbingmembers, the substantial evaporation that occurs acts to lower thetemperature of the 'air and any solid impurities in the air are arrestedand carried towards the ends of the V-shaped grooves, and the film orcurtain of water moving downwardly into the lower end of the housing orcasing 10 carries these solid impurities, which are ultimately washedinto the trough 13 and periodically flushed in the manner previouslydescribed. Thus it will be appreciated that the perforated scrubbingplates of the stack, through which air flow must pass, serve as afilter, water distributing spreader, flow directional baffles, and waterarresters.

When it is desired to shut 011 the motor, the actuating rod 46 is drawndownwardly to the ofl position shown in Figure 4 with the projectingfinger 46 engaged in the central notch in the latch 50, whereby thecontacts 48 and 49 are separated thus interrupting the electric circuitand just bringing the lower end of the rod into light or near contactwith the valve arm 38 as it is supported by the upward pressure ofspring 45 on the fixed washer 42.

Should it be desired to run the machine dry, the rod could be drawnlowerso that the finger 46 would engage the latch 50 below the positionalready described whereby the bottom end of rod 39 would cause thetrough valve arm 38 to flex against its spring action and cause thetrough to drain through the port 36, in which case the contact 48 wouldengage an alternative contact 49 spaced suitably below the primarycontact 49, whereby the motor would actuate the air circulating fan butno water would be thrown up by the ring 20 that would be running in adry trough.

As the air conditioner A is mounted externally of a building and thusopen to the outer atmosphere, then the humidity of the outer atmospherewill determine whether the air conditioner should be operated in a wetstate by the addition of water, or if the air conditioner should beoperated dry owing to the atmospheric air already containing suflicientmoisture.

Since the rod 46 is operated from within the building on which the airconditioner A is installed, then this rod may if found desirable beconstructed of a semi flexible or flexible member which would permit ofthe rod being easily led into the building.

Figure 5 shows a modification of the actuating mechanism which is shownin Figure 4.

In Figure 5, the housing as already described is provided with anopening 11 in the lower wall, and the Z-shaped brackets 12' depend fromthe lowerwall. A trough 13 is hinged at one' end, and the other end isfloating, and the trough is provided with lateral flanges which co-act.with the brackets 12.

A water supply pipe is also provided as hereinbefore set forth with avalve 30 and the free or delivery end of the water pipe depends into thetrough 13. Likewise the valve 30 co-acts with the spring controlledlever 3-1 which is pivoted at '32. The spring 33 normally holds thevalve 30 in closed position, but as the trough 13 when empty is movedupwardly around its hinged end 9, then the transverse bar 35 co-actswith the arcuate end 34 of the lever 31 to rotate the said lever in aclockwise direction against the action of the spring 33.

All the above elements are common to both forms of the inventionand areshown in Figures 4 and 5.

However in Figure 5 a lever is pivotally mounted intermediate of itslength on the pin 61 carried by the housing 10. The arms of the leverare of unequal length and the longer arm may be moved around the pin 61within the arc determined'by the upper and lower stop members 62 and 63.3

On the end of the longer arm of the lever a switch actuating arm 64 ofdi-electric material is mounted. which co-acts with the diverging armsof the pivoted switch 65 which forms part of the electric circuitincluding the variable speed motor B. The longer arm of the lever 60 isconnected by a flexible member 66 which is provided adjacent its lowerend with a pair of oppositely disposed arms 67 which co-act withthelatch68.

The latch 68 is provided on diametrically opposite walls with recesses69, and ,74 with which the arms 67 may be selectively engaged to retainthe lever 60 in a desired position. The flexible member 66 passesthrough a cylindrical guide 71 on the latch 68, and the free end of theflexible member terminatesin a hand grip 72. The upper end of a helicaltension spring 73 is connected to the longer arm of the lever 60intermediate of the length thereof, and the lower end of this spring isof a rigid rod like. formation and co-acts with the mechanism whichcontrols the engagement or disengagement of the valve 37 with the valveseat 36 j The shorter arm of the lever 60 is connected to the upperendofa helical spring 74, While the lower end of this spring is attached tothe housing 10. When arpull is applied to the hand grip 72 to engage thearm 67 with the recess 69, then the lever 60 isin a position between thestop members 62 and 63, and the spring 73 'then operates the valve 37 todisengage it from the valve seat 36 so permitting the water to bedrained from the trough 13 in the same manner as was described withrespect to Figure 4.

As the water drains from the trough 13, then the transverse member35 onthe trough is disengaged from the end 34 of the valve lever 31, and thespring 33 attached to the end of the lever 31 tends to rotate the leverin an anticlockwise direction, so. that the valve '30 is maintainedin aclosed position. This is for the Dry run operating of the device. Underthe above circumstances the air conditioning device A is operated in adry state. When it is desired to stop the machine, the hand grip 72 ispulled downwardly until the arm 67 engages the recess 70, the switchactuating arm 64 will rock the switch 65 to open the electric circuit,and shut off the motor B.

To restart the air conditioner, the hand grip 72 is actuated todisengage the arm 67 from the recess and rise past the opposite recess69, this permits the lever 60 to rotate in a clockwise direction underthe action of the spring 74, and then the valve 37 is closed on thevalve seat 36 by the pull of the spring 73. The trough '13 is rotatedupwardly around its hinged end, and so the transverse bar 35 on thetrough engages the end 34 of the lever 31 to rotate it in a clockwisedirection against the action of the spring 33. This movement of thelever 31- permits the valve 30 to open and deliver water to the trough13 through the pipe 28. Simultaneously the lever-carried arm 64 teetersthe pivoted switch 65 in circuit closing position setting the motor inoperation.

When the water in the trough has reached the desired predeterminedlevel, then the free end of the trough 13 is rotated downwardly aroundthe hinged end of the trough and the air conditioning device A isoperated under wet conditions.

It will be understood that as the water in the trough is used up, thenthe water level in the trough will fall below the desired, or permitted,lowest position so that the free end of the trough will be movedupwardly under action of the spring 73 to bring the transverse member 35into engagement with the end 34 of the lever 31 thus causing the valve30 to be actuated to replenish the water in the trough, and so bring itto the desired predetermined level.

From the foregoing description taken in connection with the accompanyingdrawings, it will be manifest that an air conditioner is provided thatwill fulfill all the necessary requirements of such a device, but asmany changes could be made in the above description and many apparentlywidely different embodiments of the invention may be constructed withinthe scope of the appended claims, without departing from the spirit orscope thereof, it is intended that all matters contained in the saidaccompanying specification and drawings shall be interpreted asallustrative and not in a limitative or restrictive sense.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed as new is:

1. An air conditioner selectably operable in wet or dry conditioncomprising a housing having an air inlet and an air outlet, a unitaryfan and distributor rotatably mounted in the housing adjacent the airinlet, air screening and scrubbing means between the fan and distributorand the air outlet, a constant level water trough movably suspendedbelow said housing, manually operated means determining the dry or wetrunning of the air conditioner, and means responsive to the last saidmeans to automatically cut ofl or deliver liquid from the trough to thedistributor during the operation of the air conditioner.

2. An air conditioner comprising a housing having an air inlet and anair outlet and provided with an elongated opening in its bottom Wall, aconstant level water trough disposed below the housing and in registrywith said opening, a unitary fan and distributor rotatably mounted inthe housing adjacent the trough, means for feeding water from the troughto the distributor to humidify the air discharged by the fan duringrotation of the fan and distributor, means between the distributor andthe air outlet and in the path of the air discharged by the fan toremove excess water and suspended impurities from the air prior todischarge of the air through the air outlet.

3. The air distributor claimed in claim 2 in which the a rigid ringencircling and concentric with the distributor,

with the lower portion of the ring immersed in the water in theunderlying trough.

4-. The air conditioner claimed in claim 2 in which the means forremoving excess moisture and suspended impurities from the air consistsof at least one screen removably supported in horizontal position insaid housing above said distributor.

5. The air conditioner claimed in claim 4 in which the screen is formedwith a plurality of parallel V-shaped grooves extending wholly acrossthe width of the plate.

6. The air conditioner claimed in claim 2 in which the means forremoving the excess water and suspended impurities from the air consistsof a plurality of perforated plates each formed with V-shaped groovesextending completely across the plate, the several plates being arrangedin stacked relation with the V-shaped grooves of one plate disposed atright angles to the V-shaped grooves in an adjacent plate.

7. An air conditioner comprising a housing having an air inlet and anair outlet and a slotted lower wall, a water trough hinged at one end tothe lower wall of the housing and disposed below and in registry withthe slot, the other end of the trough being resiliently suspended fromthe housing, a unitary fan and distributor rotatably mounted in thehousing above the trough, means actuated by the movement of the troughcontrolling the supply of water to the trough, means operating throughsaid slot for feeding water from the trough to the dis- 'tributor andmeans in the path of the stream of moisture laden air created by saidfan and distributor for the removal of excess moisture and suspendedmatter in the air before delivery of the conditioned air to the airoutlet.

8. The air conditioner claimed in claim 7 in which the trough isprovided with a water outlet valve and remote manually actuated means tocontrol the operation of the outlet valve.

9. The air conditioner claimed in claim 7 in which Z-shaped brackets ofsubstantial depth are secured adjacent the lateral edges of the slot inthe bottom of the housing, the bracket depending from the lower face ofthe bottom wall of the housing, and the trough being formed withoutwardly disposed flanges to co-act with the Z-shaped brackets, therebylimiting the hinging movement allowed said trough to the vertical depthallowance of said brackets.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS1,903,339 Kehoe Apr. 4, 1933 2,588,736 Lipton Mar. 11, 1952 2,717,659Schuldt Sept. 13, 1955 FOREIGN PATENTS 389,314 Germany Jan. 29, 1924768,518 France May 22, 1934

